Dress-form.



G. W. BARDWELL.

DRESS FORM.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.28, 1912.

1,14%,941 Patented May 25, 1915.

$1 @607 e mid a /62L,

THE NORRIS PETERS CO. PHOTC-LITHQ, WASHINGTON D. c.

UTE STATFE PATENT @FFTQE.

GEORGE W. BARDWELL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR '10 HALL-BOROHERT DRESS FORM COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION GF NEV JERSEY.

DRESS-FORM.

iaaonai.

Application filed December 28, 1912.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE W. BARDWELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, county of New York, State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Dress-Forms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specification, like characters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to dress forms and has for its object to provide a novel hip extension which is designed to take the place of the ordinary skirt section and which can be readily applied to or removed from the bottom of a form having a bu st and hip portion thereby to provide a skirt-supporting portion of sufficient length and of the proper dimension to enable a skirt to be properly fitted.

The present fashion requires that skirts should fit closely around the hips and be very narrow. This fashion has led to the wearing of long corsets which extend well down on the thigh and to which the skirts are frequently fitted quite closely. WVhere a gown or skirt is being fitted on a dress form it is important that there should be a proper support for the skirt down nearly to the knee. While it has been customary heretofore to provide dress forms with skirt portions, yet so far as I am aware such skirt portions have heretofore always been made of wire or metal strips connected together thus making a skeleton or open-work skirt portion. These skirt portions have always been made substantially circular and do not in any way attempt to approximate the human form. My improved attachment is made solid and is curved to more nearly approximate the shape of the limbs at the thigh so as to permit a skirt of the present narrow style to be properly fitted on the form.

Referring to the drawings wherein I have illustrated some embodiments of my invention, Figure 1 is a view of a dress form having my hip extensions applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a section on the line m'w, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a section similar to Fig. 2 showing a different manner of attaching the extensions to the hip sections; Fig. at is a perspective view showing one of the sections Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 25, 1915.

Serial No. 738,996.

detached; Fig. aa, Fig. 3; Fi Z)-Z), Fig. 1.

In the drawings 1 designates generally a dress form comprising the usual hip and bust portion which is sustained by a standard 2 in usual manner. This hip and bust portion is divided vertically in a plurality of places, as at i, to provide an adjustable dress form, this division forming the several hip sections 5.

The parts thus far described may have any suitable or usual construction and form no part of the present invention.

According to my invention I provide a plurality of hip section extensions 6, one for each of the hip sections. These extensions are detachably secured to the lower edge of the hip sections and are preferably made of papier mach covered with a cloth or fabric covering 7 At the upper edge each extension is shaped to conform to the lower edge of the hip section 5, and these extensions 6 are so shaped at their lower edge and throughout their extent that when they are in position they provide an extension to the bust and hip form which corresponds in contour approximately to the shape assumed by the long corset when it is being worn. In the embodiment herein shown the extensions 6 taper in slightly toward their lower edges so that when the form is adjusted the extension will be of smaller size at its lower edge than at its upper edge. Further the extensions are made with the comparatively fiat front and rear sides 8 and rounded side portions 9, thus still more closely. conforming to the desired shape. These extensions are detachably secured to and supported entirely by the hip sections. In Fig. 2 T have shown a construction wherein each extension has extending upwardly therefrom a slotted finger 90, the slot of which is adapted to embrace a clamping screw 10 anchored in the hip section, each clamping screw carrying a clamping nut 11. By loosening the nuts 11 the hip extensions can be withdrawn or applied and upon tightening the nuts they will be firmly held in place.

In Figs. 3 and 4: I have shown another manner of securing the hip extensions in position. In this embodiment each extena section on the line 5 is g. ]S a section on the line sion has extending radially therefrom near its upper edge two slotted arms 12 and each hip section has secured thereto two depending fingers 13 provided with a laterally-extending portion 14, said fingers being situated so'that the laterally-extending portions 14 overlie the slotted arms when the exten,

sions are in position. The slotted arms 12 are situated somewhat below the top edge of the extensions and the fingers 18 extend below the bottom of the hip sections, and as a result when tthe extensions are in place the fingers 13 engage the inner faces of the extensions 6. Each laterally-extending portion 14 of the finger carries a fastening device or button 15 which is swivele d thereto and which has such a shape that when it is turned in one position it will pass through the slot of the arm 12, while when it is turned through an angle of 90 it will extend across the slot. In applying any extension to its hip section the buttons 15 are first turned into position parallel with the portion 14 and as the extension is put into place said buttons will enter and pass through the slots in the arms 12. When the extension is properly positioned against the outer-faces of the fingers 13 the buttons may be turned across the slots, thus locking the parts together. This makes a very rigid connection which is easily operated.

My improvements can be applied to any dress form having a bust and hip portion, but no skirt section, by merely providing the proper fastening devices for securing the extensions to the form and the extensions are of sufiicient length to enable the present style skirts to be accurately and satisfactorily fitted. In fact these extensions provide a form by which the present-day narrow skirt can be fitted very much better than is possible with the ordinary wire skirt form heretofore used. The cloth covering 7 on.

' the extensions furnishes a means to which thegarment being fitted can be pinned and (Topics of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner Washington, D. 0.

this is a very skirts. 7

An important advantage of my invention is that when the hip sections are removed the length of the form is shortenedsufficiently so that it can be packed in a box of small compass and proportions. The stand 2 on which the form is supported is, of course, made so that the form can be removed therefrom to permitof the packing of the form in a small box.

While my invention is particularly applicable to sectional dress forms, yet under some circumstances these hip sections may be of advantage when applied to a nonadjustable dress form.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is great advantage in fitting 1. The combination with a dress form having bust and hip portions divided vertie.

cally into a plurality of sections, of hip section extensions, one for each hip section, each extension presenting a continuous surface and having a rigid non-yielding shape, and means for detachably connecting the upper edge of each extension directly to the lower edge of each hip section.

2. The combination with a dress form having bust and hip sections, of a plurality of hip section extensions, each extension presenting a continuous surface and having a rigid non-yielding shape, and means detachably connecting the upper edge of each extension directly to the loweredge of each hip section, said extensions tapering toward IVitnesses: I

Lor n M. SI-IERRATT, LUOILE M. SMITH.

GEO. w. BARDWELL.

01 Patents, 

